Rajasthan's fugitive police officer A. K. Jain surrendered before a special court here on Monday, a week after the investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, announced a reward of Rs.10 lakh for valid information on him.
Mr. Jain, Additional Director General of Rajasthan Police when he was issued a charge sheet in the much talked about Dara Singh encounter case, was remanded to one day's judicial custody by the court.
His surrender comes soon after talk about the CBI trying to get a red corner alert issued against him by Interpol.
This was because some reports had indicated that after dodging arrest since June 2011 Mr. Jain was hiding in Singapore. Mr. Jain was the ADG (Crime) when the alleged fake encounter by the police which killed Dara Singh alias Dariya took place in October 23, 2006, in the suburbs of Jaipur.
The CBI had swung into action following a Supreme Court directive to take immediate steps to nab him and others. Though along with that for Mr. Jain the CBI had announced other rewards – in their case Rs.5 lakh each — for clues to three other police functionaries, Inspector Rajesh Choudhary, Inspector Zulfikar Ali and Assistant Sub Inspector Arvind Bhardwaj, they are still at large.
Mr. Jain, an officer of the Indian Police Service 1978 batch, was summoned along with Inspector General of Police A. Ponnuchamy by the CBI to its office in May 15, 2011, for questioning on the Dara encounter. Mr. Ponnuchamy, who turned up, was arrested and Mr. Jain had been absconding ever since. In the interim period the CBI, which declared him an absconder, sealed his official residence in Jaipur and impounded his passport. Along with Mr. Ponnuchamy, nine others including Arshad Ali, Assistant superintendent of Police, are in custody.
The CBI took over the investigation in the case following a directive from the Supreme Court in the wake of the widow of the victim, Sushila Devi approaching it. She had complained about involvement of political leaders also in the conspiracy to eliminate her husband, who was in the liquor business.
